Friend of Mine
by SpoiledLiLAmy
Summary: DMHG The first time we met we hated each other, the second time we met he didn't even remember me, and the third time we met we became friends. But is it really possible for a guy and girl to ever be just friends?


**Title: **Friend of Mine

**Part: **1/15 

**Summary: **So recently a friend finally convinced me to watch When Harry Met Sally and though generally not a big fan of such movies I actually liked it. Being a raging insomniac my sleep deprived brain twisted the story into the Harry Potter fandom and here's the result. Very much Draco/Hermione.

**Disclaimer: **O.k. apparently I'm not capable of original thought because not only are the characters not mine nor is the general concept or title. The characters belong 2 everyone affiliated w/HP and the plot is based loosely on When Harry Met Sally though I promise most all of the dialogue is my own creation, cause like I said its "loosely" based. The title and the chapter titles are all stolen from Eve6 songs which I actually gave them a plug in the story as well. They are my favorite band without contest and I think they deserve more recognition than they get.

**~~~**

_Friend of mine, stay alive_

_Don't you leave me here_

_All alone in the world with a chronic tear_

_I will always be here, I will always be here_

_I will always be here for you_

_~Friend of Mine~ Eve 6~_

~~~

**June 16th-- Graduation**

"I love you."

"I love you more."

Hermione grimaced as she regarded the fawning couple in front of her with an equal mix of exasperation and jealousy. Dark and light they stood opposite each other, their identical pale fingers entwined in front of them. 

"Promise you'll call as soon as you get there?"

Hermione sighed, leaning briefly on the horn of her car immediately feigning embarrassed surprise as the two lovers were torn from their trance, each fixing their gaze on her, the female looking sheepish while the male was channeling obvious irritation.

"Whoops," she chirped as the couple approached the car training what she hoped was an apologetic smile at the girl who came to bend down next to the driver side window, her red lips turned up in a sad smile as she pushed her immaculate black curls away to reveal watering green eyes.

            "I'm going to miss you 'Mione," the girl pouted. Hermione felt her own smile soften as identical tears began to well up in her own eyes. She had befriended the mysterious Blaise Zambini 5th year as they were the only two girls in their advanced Arithmacy class. Following Voldemorts final demise half way through the semester they were two of the first to transcend the interhouse stereotypes and kindle a friendship over a shared love of sappy muggle movies and dancing. Not performance dancing, just the kind they reveled in at Hogwarts various balls and their occasional unsanctioned excursions to various clubs 6th and 7th year.

"I'll miss you to Blaise," Hermione cried, unbuckling her seatbelt and reaching through the window to wrap her friend in a farewell hug. When they finally pulled away both girls were laughing as they wiped away the tears they had been unable to squeeze back.

"Take care of my Drakey for me will ya 'Mione?" Blaise asked wiping at her smudged eye makeup as she turned her adoring gaze on the boy standing on the opposite side of the car.

"I have to ride in this little wreck for 16 hours?" the boy in question whined, his top lip curling up in disgust at the prospect of traveling in such a vehicle.

"It's economical and environmentally sound," Hermione snipped defensively, stroking the steering wheel as if some how the little red Echo would be offended by his slanderous remarks about it. So maybe there was a small ding on the front fender and possibly two on the right side and a rather obvious dent on the back but who cared. And the scratch running down the left side was a bit of an eyesore but that one so wasn't her fault. And who the hell needed two windshield wipers anyway? 

"If it were strictly up to me Malfoy you'd be hitchhiking your sorry ass to Ministry Headquarters," she said sweetly, shooting the blonde a resentful glare. Malfoy attempted to open the passenger's door quite unsuccessfully. He groaned, slamming a fist on the top of the car and the door popped open.

"I'll miss you so much," Blaise was simpering, having crossed around to wrap her arms around Malfoy's neck. Blaise and Malfoy had been a couple for several months though Hermione knew her friend had been harboring a crush on Slytherin's Prince for years. But it was June and graduations had occurred several hours before, life stepping in to rip the new couple apart. 

6th year had seen Malfoy denounce his father and the promise of a future as a subservient little leech in Voldemort's drastically depleted forces. So Draco wasn't all bad, or at least he was smart enough not to want a life of glorified servitude. Needless to say Lucius Malfoy was less than thrilled by his son's shifting loyalties and disowned him, leaving his spawn lacking transportation to the position that awaited him at the Ministry.

Head boy with marks and recommendations high enough to make most prospective employers piss themselves with glee; he had accepted the rather esteemed position without question. It was Blaise who seduced Hermione into driving her stellar boyfriend the distance to the new life that awaited him. 'I have to stay and oversee graduation party preparations,' she had said referring to the post-Hogwarts blowout that neither Hermione nor Draco would be attending. 'And you're already going that way, you'd have no problem dropping him off and making your flight in plenty of time.' Hermione had relented, not wanting to admit that she might enjoy some company on the long drive to the airport even if it was Draco Malfoy.

The couple were currently obscured from view from the elbow up but from what she could hear they were saying their last passionate goodbyes. Hermione jiggled her foot anxiously, hating that they were almost 10 minutes off schedule and hating that she had just witnessed them round more bases within the past five minutes than she had managed in the past five months.

Deeming the horn accident too risky this time she opted for an unintentional blaring of the radio…

_Like Jessica rabbit she collects bad habits, gets her drinks for free. Animated vixen…_

"Oh for Christ's…" she heard Draco fume, bending down to scowl at her through the open door, "Don't get your panties in a bunch Granger, I'm ready." He gave Blaise one last kiss before folding his lithe frame in the small passenger's seat and slamming the door shut.

"My schedule's been shot to hell," she whined, actually producing a handwritten sheet of notebook paper on which she had mapped out their entire journey in half hour increments. She crumpled the paper, tossing it out the window where it landed on the hot pavement. She stared sullenly as the paper appeared almost to wilt in the staggeringly humid summer air, remembering how she had rushed through her tearful goodbye with Ron and Harry as to stay on schedule.

"That wasn't very environmentally sound," Draco said through a bright smile he was flashing Blaise through the windshield, waving enthusiastically. Hermione glowered as she yanked the car into drive, Blaise quickly disappearing along the sprawling green panorama of the Hogwarts grounds.

The minute they were out of the lot Draco let his hand fall, the smile dropping off his face like a mask, which, Hermione would later realize, it probably was. He leaned over to adjust the radio to a more tolerable volume before rolling down his window in a vain attempt to get some air circulating in the stuffy car. He shifted uncomfortably and loosened his tie, looking immediately more relieved.

The pair were both still dressed in their dress attire from the post graduation luncheon which had been held in an open tent on the spacious Hogwarts lawn.

"Good choice," Draco commended lightly and Hermione shot him a brief suspicious glance. "In music," he clarified, a crooked but genuine smile forming over her obvious distrust of him, "Best there is actually."

A look of pure stunned admiration flitted across the driver's face as she once more tore her eyes from the road to glance at her blonde passenger.

"I know," she agreed, nodding in amazement, "but they're a muggle band, and… American," she sputtered. Draco raised one perfect eyebrow in her direction as if to say that if the best was out there he was certainly going to find it, American muggles or not.

"Killer lyrics," was all he said by way of explanation. Hermione shot him another rather dazed glance but he had turned his attention to the monotonous scenery flashing past the window.

~~~

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It was absurdly hot in the car even with every window rolled down to its full extent. She shot a jealous glare at Draco, dozing in the passenger's seat. His tie had been discarded miles ago and he had undone the top few buttons of his shirt in addition to rolling the cuffs up past his elbows. While he wasn't his usual put together self he was receiving the full benefit of what little air was circulating in the car.

Hermione sighed as she caught her reflection in the rearview mirror. Her already bushy hair had taken on a life of its own in the humidity. What wasn't plastered to her neck with sweat was fuzzing around her head and look like it was preparing to either eat her or crawl off in search of better climes. 

She spotted a pen resting next to the parking break and positioned her knee against the steering wheel to manage navigation and free her hands. Hermione gathered her mutinous hair and brought it up in an elaborate twist which she secured with the pen. She heard Draco start next to her and quickly dropped her hands from her hair, taking control of the car which had begun to wander into a neighboring lane.

"Jesus, Granger, now is not the time for bloody primping," Draco groused, running his hands through his hair. "You really can't drive can you? You and this car deserve each other."

"I was hot," Hermione retorted, sounding mildly insulted as she once more silently apologized to her poor little car who was the recipient of much of Draco's verbal abuse.

The first two hours were spent alternating between friendly conversation and companionable silence as Draco and Hermione found they had just spent the past 7 years hating someone they didn't really know. But that was miles ago and the heat and immobility had them both on edge.

"Look Granger I know you're obsessively neurotic about 'staying on schedule,'" he said, earning a glare from Hermione who didn't appreciate his use of air quotes, "but I need a break."

Hermione appeared to debate this request before swinging suddenly and cruising up the exit ramp. Draco cringed as several other cars were forced to break or swerve to avoid collision and pressed his fingers to his temples hoping to ease some of the tension which had crept in and was currently needling at his eyes. Draco groaned and clapped his hands over his face to hide the barely perceptible twitch that occasionally seized his left eye.

Hermione pulled into the lot of a small diner and safely put the car in park. She unbuckled and got out of the car, leaving Draco to collect himself in private.

"Spaz," she muttered, stretching in the balmy afternoon air, letting out a nearly orgasmic groan of relief. She hopped lightly and rolled her neck as Draco fumbled with the car's locks before staggering out to join her on the strip of pavement outside the diner.

"Granger, please. Cute as I think the aerobics are, you just look like a loon to everyone else." Hermione narrowed her eyes and pun around, entering the diner, letting the door bang shut in Draco's face. 

Draco rolled his eyes, doing a few subtle leg loosening jumps of his own before following her into the restaurant. Hermione was already seated in a booth, methodically organizing the sugar packets.

Draco slid into the booth across from her, reaching out to relocate a pink 'Sweet-n-Low' pack to the very middle of the line of white granulated sugar envelopes. Hermione shot him a look of mild annoyance and Draco moved the basket out of her reach.

"Granger, you're scaring me." Before she could reply a busty waitress appeared to take their orders.

"I'll have the club with fries and a coke," Draco ordered without sparing the woman much as a glance. Hermione, however, turned her full attention on her, hands dropping to play idly with the hem of her dress.

"Ok, I'll have a cold cut trio only without the ham and with spicy and honey mustards on it. I want both the spicy and the honey but if you don't have honey then ill have just the spicy but if you don't have spicy I don't want any mustard at all. And I want lettuce on it, but only if it's the shredded kind, if it isn't, no lettuce, I want hot peppers and no mustard." 

The waitress regarded Hermione blankly as the much smaller girl spouted off her involved order. "Fries or chips?"

"Fries," Hermione answered. "And a coke, no ice."

The waitress quickly retreated and Draco gaped at the tiny girl sitting across from him. "Where you always this neurotic?" he asked, once more grabbing the collection of sugar packets away from her.

"Drag this neurotic to hysterics," she quoted, sitting back in her seat, obviously used to the question as she failed to appear insulted.

"Leave him balked and unfulfilled," Draco finished, smiling at her reference to their shared band of preference.

"So what exactly is this job I'm chauffeuring you to?" Hermione asked, the easy mood from earlier in the trip returning now that they weren't trapped in an overheated car.

"Magical Diseases: research and prevention." Draco recited, pausing to sip the soda the waitress slid in front of him.

Hermione took their opportunity to examine her dinner date. White blonde hair falling occasionally into his face, obscuring sharp but refined features, razor-sharp cheek bones and pale lips set in a pale face. Flawless skin and those eyes that had captured the hearts and panties of half of Hogwarts female students. Liquid silver framed by almost femininely long lashes. The boy was damn near walking perfection Hermione admitted inwardly, her eyes quickly assessing what she could see of his 6 foot, pale skinned, Quidditch toned frame.

"Really Granger," Draco said, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he jolted Hermione from her mental strip show. "I realize its' been a long trip and you probably weigh less than my left leg but the drooling's a tad disconcerting. I'm sure they'll have your meticulously prepared sandwich here soon enough."

Hermione shifted uncomfortably on the plastic coated bench, a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry, it's just," she began, taking a swig from her own soda, "research. We're going into related fields."  
            "Mediwitch, I know," Draco replied, "Blaise told me," he explained off her surprised glance. "What I want to know is why you're fleeing the bloody country. I'm sure every institution in the whole of Europe is just falling over themselves to recruit you. You'd probably even get a higher starting position if you opted for a Hogwarts affiliated hospital."

Their food arrived and Hermione had to carefully examine her sandwich for a stray onion or inconsistency in mustard distribution. She removed several suspicious shreds of lettuce and a slightly over toasted section of bread before replying.

"I can't make my own life here. I take a job with the ministry and I'll have Harry the mighty and powerful Auror watching my ass and Ron's smile masking my every mistake with the cushy public relations job of his. I'll be held to different standards and never be held accountable for my mistake or applauded for my successes because I'm Harry Potter's little mate, ya know?" she said feeling slightly silly for spilling her damage to Draco Malfoy. 

Draco, however, acknowledged her explanation with an understanding nod. "Need a change of scenery?"

"To an extent," she admitted, marveling over Draco's near amiable mood. Over the course of the car ride they had found they shared more in common than taste in music, they're interests eerily paralleling from their appreciation for artsy films to their consensus that cats were a far superior animal to dogs. She could almost picture herself leaving this experience with a new friend despite years of contention between the two…

"You know Granger, you're actually quite pretty."

…or not.

Hermione scowled, shoving several fries in her mouth. "Sod off," she muttered, sinking down lower on the bench seat.

"I'm serious," Draco retorted, his uncanny silver gaze pinning her with a studying intensity. "Obviously you need some work but I'm surprised your stock wasn't higher back at school. Nice eyes, big, long lashes, very pretty face overall, great bone structure, might try a little make-up," he assessed, Hermione flushed bright red across the table. "I mean, granted your hair looks like shit and you dress in maternity clothes but both of those could be fixed with a little effort on your part."

Hermione was suddenly hyperaware of the fuzzy bush of blah-brown hair enveloping her head as she looked down at her shapeless blue shift. O.k. so it was a little more modest than the glorified pink lingerie that Lavender had been sporting but it wasn't _that_ bad. A picture of Lavender's recieveal at the ceremony sprang unwillingly to mind, the catcalls and applause in contrast to the polite nods she herself had received. Hermione dug some money from a pocket of her dress; yes her dress had pockets, she needed pockets because she hated purses, thank you very much Ginny; and slammed it on the table, getting up, her face still flaming. Draco slid some of his own cash onto the stained formica and easily caught up to her. 

Hermione gave a startled yelp as her dress was pulled tight against her from behind. She twisted, knocking Draco's hands away, only to meet his appreciative leer. 

"Not bad Granger," he commended, "You're a little short and your tits, well, moderate, and even that's a bit generous but you've got killer legs and a flat stomach. It's all about the abs these days anyway." 

Hermione glowered, laying several punches on his arm in quick succession with her little fists. "You arrogant, creeping, prat! You're dating my friend!"

"I'm making candid, truthful observations here Granger, giving you some advice form the male perspective."  
            "Harry and Ron never critiqued my chest," she fumed. Draco shot her a look that clearly said 'What? Those pansies?' before starting out to the car.

"Look, Malfoy," Hermione called, giving chase, "I just want us to be friends!" she called, catching up to him in the parking lot.

Draco opened the passenger's door, "Fine. Friends," he conceded before ducking into the car. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief but surreptitiously smoothed her hair before getting into the driver's seat.

~~~

"You do realize we can never be friends," Draco said. They had been on the road almost half an hour, all of which Draco had appeared to be lost deep in thought.

"Why not?" Hermione asked, almost forlornly.

"Because guys and girls can't be just mates. It doesn't work. Sex always gets in the way."  
            "That's not true," Hermione countered defensively, "I've had plenty…"

"I guarantee you Granger," Draco interrupted, "every one of them wanted to shag your compulsive little brains out."

Hermione looked quickly away from the road, her face screwed up in disbelief. "But Harry…"

"Please," Draco again interrupted with a snort of laughter, "The whole school knows Potter popped your cherry 6th year and the Weasel would've given his left knad for a glimpse under those ugly school robes of yours."

Hermione processed all of this silently for a few minutes. "Why his left?"

"What?" Draco asked, confused.

"I mean, why his left? Is the left somehow less important than the right?"

Draco examined her profile, "No Granger, they're equally important," he replied after assuring himself of her seriousness. "The point I'm trying to make is that guys and girls can't be friends."

"I think you're too cynical for a 17 year old," she retorted, attention once more fixed on the road.

"I'm realistic," Draco corrected, "We'll never be friends."

"It's a shame to," Hermione said wistfully, "you're the first guy to ever say I'm pretty."

~~~

TBC…. Please Please Please review!

~~~


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